As known, there is an increasing demand from the market for soft drinks or beverages containing fruit particles or pieces, such as soft fruit bits, normally available in cubes or slices, fruit fibers, containing large portions of fruit cellulose, and fruit sacs, i.e. intact “pouch-like” structures of a citrus fruit, filled with or without liquid and having lengths up to 5-8 mm.
These kinds of beverages are normally stored in tanks before being delivered to the filling machines and then closed and sealed into containers or bottles for retail.
In many cases, these beverages have to be delivered to the containers in a hot state and therefore they have to be heated when they are stored in the tanks.
Plus, they have to be continuously moved by an agitator housed in the tank in order to avoid that the fruit particles float on the free surface of the beverages or sink to the bottom of the tank.
Agitators are typically formed by a shaft immersed in the tank, rotatable about its axis and provided with two or more blades acting on the whole beverage.
This kind of agitators tends to damage the fruit particles, in particular when these particles are sacs. The damaging action on the fruit particles is further aggravated when the action of the blades of the agitator is combined with heating the beverage in the tank. In addition, relevant damages may be produced on the fruit particles during spillage of the fluid through one or more outlets, due to the whirling movement impressed to the fluid.
Furthermore, it is normally requested that the fruit particles are kept in suspension in the fluid before being delivered to the containers; the standard agitators may be suitable for particles naturally floating or sinking but not for both of them.